NEW DELHI: Azim Premji has emerged as the 'most generous Indian' in the Hurun India Philanthropy List 2015, a ranking of the most generous individuals from India released on Friday.

Premji donated Rs 27,514 crore for education through The Azim Premji foundation. The foundation works in 8 states and has more than 350,000 schools.

This is the third successive year that Premji has topped the philanthropy list, says Hurun Research Institute that released the ranking. Donations were measured by the value of their cash or cash equivalent from 1 November 2014 to 31 October 2015.

According to a statement from Hurun Research Institute, Nandan and Rohini Nilekani take the second spot in the list with a contribution of Rs 2,404 crore while NR Narayana Murthy & family take the third spot with donation of Rs 1,322 crore for encouraging entrepreneurship, social development and education.

K Dinesh, who retired from Infosys in 2011, is at the fourth spot with donations of Rs 1,238 crore. K Dinesh has been actively involved in philanthropic ventures in education, entrepreneurship encouragement and healthcare.

At fifth spot is Shiv Nadar who donated Rs 525 crore to various charitable activities through the Shiv Nadar Foundation. "Samudhay" an initiative to develop a replicable model of development for villages across five critical parameters - education, employability, health, infrastructure and water - is the dream project of the chairman of $6.3 billion HCL Technologies.

"Despite weak corporate earnings in 2015 compared to last year, the increasing speed of wealth creation seems to promise a bright future for Indian philanthropy," said Anas Rahman Junaid, Business Head, Hurun Report India, in a statement.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report, said "Education is the cause that India's philanthropists feel they can make the biggest difference in."